Matt Hancock affair

[TheoMeo]

AIBU to be utterly peed off that another one of our Ministers - rather than devoting his time and effort to getting the country out of this mess - is busy carrying on with an aide (which he appointed at great expense to the tax payer) - aaaaaaag.
www.thesun.co.uk/

Can't help but wonder about the timing of this revelation.

Trying to distract from this?

"Boris Johnson’s £37bn Test and Trace service is facing fresh criticism after a damning new report found that it had lost track of nearly 600 million Covid tests."

Only 14% registered as used.

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/nhs-test-and-trace-lost-covid-tests_uk_60d48f44e4b0c101fc857eeb/?__twitter_impression=true

@Moonwhite

Of course, all this is just a distraction.

Is it? Idiot Hancock doesn't know or care that he's feeling up his "special advisor" under CCTV. Underpaid and pissed-off HOC worker sees an excellent opportunity for a payday. Good for them. The delay was probably because of a bidding war.

I think that is just as likely as it being Cummings or Johnson. I worked in the public sector, one of the big bosses was up to no good and it was one of the lowly plebs who got the evidence on him, reported it and it ended up in a court case and prison. How the mighty can fall. It is really sensible to be nice to the staff as they know a surprising amount of stuff about the higher ups.

You will realise that Hancock’s affair really can’t remotely be compared to it

No it cannot, Hancocks behavior is far worse.

We are in a situation that this country hasn't been in since WW2, MH job is to focus on Health/Covid/NHS Staffing & resources, not getting in his lovers knickers.

Work CCTV cameras are quite big, the fact he failed to appreciate this, calls into question his abilities to do any job in government.

@AllPowerfulLizardPerson

It's really shit for his wife to have this explode into her life, let alone in full glare of publicity.

There is nothing in the tabloid story to suggest that the affair has been going on in breach of the regulations. They can only be sure that she started working for him a year ago, and that they were caught out one month ago.

The salacious details of how and when it started will fascinate the prurient. As she was an employee, there is however an important question on whether the affair has begun when she was appointed, or if it is something that arose later.

Agree, awful for his poor wife and kids. I think however the other woman was more of an appointee than an employee. Contracted adviser, in fact I think she is an unpaid adviser. One of these that earns so much elsewhere they can take on unpaid work for their CV presumably.

I still feel a bit sorry for Hancock too. There is no doubt he is a worker and he has had the most unenviable job. As we come out of the pandemic it is probably time for a change anyway at the Dept of Health. Hancock must be mentally exhausted - perhaps that's why what happened, happened.

Though how Boris can sack him for infidelity whilst keeping a straight face? Hancock would have to resign, I cannot see him getting sacked.

Above all what this tells me is that Matt Hancock is not a very bright weasel. Conducting a supposedly clandestine affair in his office at Whitehall? Within view of CCTV?

This is the man entrusted to lead our pandemic response, the greatest national crisis since WW2? Explains a lot, really.

I hope they both wore hazmat suits and practiced 'covid safe' positions.

I simply care about how he does his job

How do you think he has done his job properly?
Put covid aside and let's talk about the real reason Boris was voted in. Have they done there job properly because I know hard core Brexit voters are not happy with the trade deal with Australia. They want to buy British not Australian meat that has been injected with hormones.

I am sure if you was caught kissing or shagging on the job with your pa you would be sacked.

All I could think - how does he find the time and also he should be doing something else (as Health Secretary or whatever his title is)!

The thing is even if he does now step down who is going to replace him? Williamson? Shapps? Patel? It’s not like there is a q of brilliant people lined up. He’s behaved appallingly but I think is marginally less awful than the alternatives.

Underpaid and pissed-off HOC worker sees an excellent opportunity for a payday.

Google who her husband is she is far from poor.

@paddingtonbearmeetsdeadpool

Underpaid and pissed-off HOC worker sees an excellent opportunity for a payday.

Google who her husband is she is far from poor.

No, PP means a payday for the HoC worker who tipped the press off to the affair and sent them the CCTV footage...

His poor, poor wife and children.

But why would Hancock think having an affair was a problem? It clearly isn't for the Prime Minister. Probably wouldn't cross his mind to keep it any kind of secret from anyone except his wife. Ditto the appointing of mates.

What's out of kilter about this is The Sun suddenly acting like it's a resigning matter, unlike Johnson with Jennifer Arcuri – about whom there are some very fishy things, BTW, including the fake-person "media manager".

Boris Johnson, Jennifer Arcuri, and the mysterious Annie Tacker
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50095698

And trying to find that link, I've come across a prescient quote from Zoe Williams last year:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/07/boris-johnson-jennifer-arcuri-scandal-public-funds-private-lives
And actually, a lot of people don’t care, and never have, about any politician’s personal life, being periodically rushed into having a reaction by pearl-clutching tabloids when the time for a scandal was politically expedient. Johnson has always banked on this, and always been proven right.

Should have said, The Sun's sudden concern is ONE of things that's out of kilter; it's certainly not the only one!

I really feel for his wife and kids, and for the husband of the OW. It's awful enough to discover the person you love has been betraying you, but other couples usually get the choice of whether they tell anyone or keep it private. To have this splashed all over the news for the entire country to see must be a humiliation beyond imagining, just awful.

I hope he gets nob-rot. Lying, two faced prick.

I always think when any politician has an affair that if they can lie so easily to their own wife and family and stab them in the back then there is no way they will be truthful to the public or behave with any integrity in their role. They've shown us all they can't be trusted and their judgement is poor.

I hope someone was able to warn his wife before this happened.
The youngest was born in 2013 so the older ones must be pre-teen or young teen. Old enough to read the friggin internet god love them.
A photo of your Dad kissing and groping another woman splashed all over the papers.
That's a childhood trauma happening right there.

@Blossomtoes The profumo affair was more about a.)National security concerns at the height of the cold war (Keeler was also shagging a russian "Naval attache" (i.e KGB/GRU spy) and profumo was a minster in the war office b.) A minister lying in Parliament who was then proved to have done so.

If Hancock had stood up in Parliament last week and said "I am not having and affair etc etc" then he would be resigning today too, rather than it probably being brushed under the carpet.

Oh come on DC, we're all still waiting for the Jennifer Arcuri photos. Something tells me it is unlikely that any recipient would keep them to themself. Time will tell.

"I've known plenty of women get promoted for fucking the boss, happens all the time."

yes and MH will be promoted by BJ as a result of this situation.

No surprise! It’s been a shit show from the start and the corruption and self entitlement attitude is in your face. Right in front of a camera too. Wakes wakes

[quote colouringindoors]Can't help but wonder about the timing of this revelation.

Trying to distract from this?

"Boris Johnson’s £37bn Test and Trace service is facing fresh criticism after a damning new report found that it had lost track of nearly 600 million Covid tests."

Only 14% registered as used.

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/nhs-test-and-trace-lost-covid-tests_uk_60d48f44e4b0c101fc857eeb/?__twitter_impression=true[/quote]
Oh! I did wonder…

I thought it might be the Toynbee report about the trillions we’ve lost since Brexit.
Or the Green List travel changes.
Or the empty shelves and shortages.
Or the Covid restrictions despite the VIP sports events.
So many distractions needed these days, it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re persuading half the Cabinet to start affairs with their SPADs!

Karma right there.

@MrsBunHat

Urgh fgs. Is “incompetent love rat” an actual requirement to run the country?

What I don’t get though is why Hancock didn’t do a massive flounce and resign at the “fucking useless” text, I mean how humiliating. How can he carry on working with Boris at all after that.

I have to admit I kind of love Cummings with his evil/nonchalant expression, big bag of evidence and slow-drip destruction. If he was in a novel he’d be too OTT.

Well, we know why he's so fucking useless now. He didn't have his mind on the job.

He was too busy on a different sort of job.

@Frazzled2207

The thing is even if he does now step down who is going to replace him? Williamson? Shapps? Patel? It’s not like there is a q of brilliant people lined up. He’s behaved appallingly but I think is marginally less awful than the alternatives.

I never thought I’d ever say this but I wouldn’t mind Hunt going back.

Apparently Liz Truss is supporting him and says he didn't break any rules. I think we've all misunderstood the rules.